Eating Out in Karnataka

Besides being a popular tourist destination, Karnataka is identified as a gourmet's delight with its wide array of traditional and modern delicacies. Every region of the state has its tradition of unique cuisine. It offers a huge variety of dishes such as purely vegetarian Lingayat cuisine, the Bunt and Madhwa Brahmin cuisine of Mangalore, and the Gowda cuisine. Eating out in Karnataka includes great variety, ranging from tempting rawa dosa to crisp fried fish platters. You can get all types of hot and spicy food, that is served with the spicy chutneys. All the major cities in Karnataka including Bangalore, Belgaum, Shimoga and Mangalore are dotted with several good restaurants offering south and north Indian dishes, as well as Chinese and Continental delicacies. Eating out in Karnataka offers a golden opportunity to enjoy typical south Indian food, including rice, sambar, rasam, kosambari, palya, papads, buttermilk and pickles. In north Karnataka, you can enjoy jolada roti, yennegai, soppu palya, pulses palya as well as five different varieties of pickles and pudis. The coastal region of Karnataka is popular for kotte idlis, which are steamed in jackfruit leaf and served with chutney and sambar. Belgaum is very famous for its sweet preparation, k unda.

Eating out in Karnataka is a pampering experience for the tourists. Besides south Indian delicacies, they can enjoy Konkani, Mangalorean and Coorgi cuisines. The Konkani cuisine in Karnataka is prepared by using the freshly grind ingredients. Every dish is cooked with abundant use of grated coconut and creamy coconut milk. The dishes like neer dosas (thin pancakes), sannas, appams and dumplings are prepared from soaked and ground cereals and dals. Fish, crabs and chicken are made in freshly made coconut paste.

The Mangalorean cuisines offer the rice-based recipes, having a mixture of fresh coconut, chillies and tamarind. The Mangalorean delicacies include red grain rice, sannas (idli fluffed with yeast or toddy), pancakes, neer dosa, rice rotis and kori roti (a crisp, wafer-thin rice dish served with chicken curry). The Mangalorean food is characterized by a generous amount of spinach, besale, bamboo shoots and raw bananas.

The Coorgi cuisine is distinctive with items like nool puttu (rice noodles), pandi cury (succulent pork curry), koli curry (chicken curry), kadambuttu (rice dumplings) and votti (rice roti). Eating out in Karnataka can't be complete without tasting dosas, chutney and sambar. The city of Bangalore is known as the Mecca for the dosa hunters. The Udupi Sri Krishna Bhavan, Vidyarthi Bhavan and Mavalli Tiffin Room are three popular restaurants offering the finest dosas.

Along with hot and spicy dishes, Karnataka is famous for its array of sweet dishes. Some of the popular desserts of Karnataka are chiroti, obbattu, Mysore pak, kunda from Belgaum, and Dharwad peda, etc. There are many excellent restaurants in Karnataka, established in various cities of the state.

Some of the most popular restaurants that are ideal for eating out in Karnataka are Alampur Bar and Restaurant, Amaravathi Restaurant, Anand Sweets and Savouries, Aromas of China, Banjara The Restaurant, Canopy Restaurant, Chinese Room, Cinnamon, Club Cabana, Crescent Avenue, Dahlia, Gangotree, Gardenia Restaurant, Hotel Chandrika, Hypnos, Mainland China, Treat Restaurant, Xiang Shan, Kabab Studio, etc. Besides these restaurants, all the luxurious hotels in Karnataka have their own multi-cuisine restaurants. Karnataka undoubtedly provides the right kind of food for the authentic food lover. When in Karnataka, one must make it a point to taste the local dishes, which are mostly vegetarian but are really tasty.

Last Updated On: 2011/07/11